Harold J. Spaeth

Bio: Harold J. Spaeth is an academic researcher from Michigan State University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Supreme court & Majority opinion. The author has an hindex of 22, co-authored 54 publications receiving 3683 citations.

The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited

Abstract: This book, authored by two leading scholars of the Supreme Court and its policy making, systematically presents and validates the use of the attitudinal model to explain and predict Supreme Court decision making. In the process, it critiques the two major alternative models of Supreme Court decision making and their major variants: the legal and rational choice. Using the US Supreme Court Data Base, the justices' private papers, and other sources of information, the book analyzes the appointment process, certiorari, the decision on the merits, opinion assignments, and the formation of opinion coalitions. The book will be the definitive presentation of the attitudinal model as well as an authoritative critique of the legal and rational choice models. The book thoroughly reflects research done since the 1993 publication of its predecessor, as well as decisions and developments in the Supreme Court, including the momentous decision of Bush v. Gore.

The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model

Abstract: Preface 1. Introduction: Supreme Court policy making 2. Models of decision making 3. A political history of the Supreme Court 4. Staffing the Court 5. Getting into court 6. The decision on the merits process 7. Opinion assignment and opinion coalitions 8. The Supreme Court and constitutional democracy 9. The impact of judicial decisions 10. Conclusion Appendix Index.

Ideological Values and the Votes of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Revisited

Abstract: Segal and Cover (1989) analyzed the content of newspaper editorials to devise measures of the ideological values of the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Because their measures came from sources independent of the judicial vote, scholars have widely adopted them. This note updates, backdates, and extends the Segal and Cover research by adding the two Bush appointees and the seven Roosevelt and four Truman nominees whose service extended beyond the start of the Vinson Court. While we find that the ideological values of the Eisenhower through Bush appointees correlate strongly with votes cast in economic and civil liberties cases, the results are less robust for justices appointed by Roosevelt and Truman.

The Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions, and Developments

Abstract: "The Supreme Court Compendium is the only reference that presents historical and statistical information on every important aspect of the U.S. Supreme Court, including its history, development as an institution, the justices' backgrounds, nominations, and confirmations, and the Court's relationship with the public and other governmental and judicial bodies. The newest edition of this comprehensive reference includes important new perspective on the legacy of the Rehnquist court." Readers will also find: An institutional overview of the Court's history including a chronology of important events from 1787-2006, important Congressional legislation relating to the Supreme Court, internet sites relating to law and courts, and much more; background information on all the justices such as family backgrounds, childhood environments, marital status, educational and employment histories, political experiences and trends in voting agreement; and the political and legal environment of the Court is presented including the success rate of the United States as a party before the Supreme Court, the rates of success of various administrative agencies, and state participation in court litigation with success rates. "This new edition includes more than 180 tables and charts and is updated to cover Supreme Court events through the 2005-2006 term. This reference is an invaluable resource to judicial scholars, students, and those interested in the history of the Supreme Court."

Taking Rights Seriously

Abstract: 1.. HARD CASES 5. Legal Rights A. Legislation . . . We might therefore do well to consider how a philosophical judge might develop, in appropriate cases, theories of what legislative purpose and legal principles require. We shall find that he would construct these theories in the same manner as a philosophical referee would construct the character of a game. I have invented, for this purpose, a lawyer of superhuman skill, learning, patience and acumen, whom I shall call Hercules. I suppose that Hercules is a judge in some representative American jurisdiction. I assume that he accepts the main uncontroversial constitutive and regulative rules of the law in his jurisdiction. He accepts, that is, that statutes have the general power to create and extinguish legal rights, and that judges have the general duty to follow earlier decisions of their court or higher courts whose rationale, as l

The Political Foundations of Democracy and the Rule of the Law

Abstract: This paper develops a game-theoretic approach to the problem of political officials' respect for political and economic rights of citizens. It models the policing of rights as a coordination problem among citizens, but one with asymmetries difficult to resolve in a decentralized manner. The paper shows that democratic stability depends on a self-enforcing equilibrium: It must be in the interests of political officials to respect democracy's limits on their behavior. The concept of self-enforcing limits on the state illuminates a diverse set of problems and thus serves as a potential basis for integrating the literature. The framework is applied to a range of topics, such as democratic stability, plural societies, and elite pacts. The paper also applies its lessons to the case of the Glorious Revolution in seventeenth-century England.

Small Groups: Key Readings

Abstract: About the Editors. Acknowledgments. Small Groups: An Overview. Part 1. Group Composition. Introduction. Reading 1. The Contribution of Influence and Selection to Adolescent Peer Group Homogeneity: The Case of Adolescent Cigarette Smoking. Ennett & Bauman. Reading 2. Some Effects of Proportions on Group Life: Skewed Sex Ratios and Responses to Token Women. Kanter . Reading 3 Effects of Crew Composition on Crew Performance: Does the Whole Equal the Sum of Its Parts? Tziner & Eden. Part 2. Group Structure. Introduction. Reading 4. Status, Expectations, and Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review and Test of the Theory. Driskell & Mullen. Reading 5. Asymmetries in Attachments to Groups and to Their Members: Distinguishing Between Common-Identity and Common-Bond Groups. Prentice, Miller, & Lightdale. Reading 6. The "Friendly" Poker Game: A Study of an Ephemeral Role. Zurcher. Part 3. Conflict in Groups. Introduction. Reading 7. Effects of Group Identity on Resource Use in a Simulated Commons Dilemma. Kramer & Brewer. Reading 8. Status, Ideology, and Integrative Complexity on the U.S. Supreme Court: Rethinking the Politics of Political Decision Making. Gruenfeld. Reading 9. Being Better by Being Right: Subjective Group Dynamics and Derogation of In-Group Deviants When Generic Norms Are Undermined. Marques, Abrams, & Serodio. Reading 10. Does Power Corrupt? Kipnis. Part 4. Group Performance. General Introduction. A. Decision Making. Introduction. Reading 11. Collective Induction. Laughlin & Shippy. Reading 12. Social Transition Schemes: Charting the Group's Road to Agreement. Kerr. Reading 13. Pooling of Unshared Information in Group Decision Making: Biased Information Sampling During Discussion. Stasser & Titus. Reading 14. Threat, Cohesion, and Group Effectiveness: Testing a Social Identity Maintenance Perspective on Groupthink. Turner, Pratkanis, Probasco, & Leve. Reading 15. The Effects of Repeated Expressions on Attitude Polarization during Group Discussions. Brauer, Judd, & Gliner. B. Productivity. Introduction. Reading 16. Many Hands Make Light the Work: The Causes and Consequences of Social Loafing. Latane, Williams, & Harkins. Reading 17. Impact of Group Goals, Task Component Complexity, Effort, and Planning on Group Performance. Weingart. Reading 18. Transactive Memory: Learning Who Knows What in Work Groups and Organizations. Moreland. C. Leadership. Introduction. Reading 19. Self-Monitoring and Trait-Based Variance in Leadership: An Investigation of Leader Flexibility across Multiple Group Situations. Zaccaro, Foti, & Kenny. Reading 20. The Contingency Model: A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness. Fiedler. Reading 21. Self-Categorization and Leadership: Effects of Group Prototypicality and Leader Stereotypicality. Hains, Hogg, & Duck.. Reading 22. The Romance of Leadership. Meindl, Ehrlich, & Dukerich. Part 5. Group Ecology. Introduction. Reading 23. Coming Out in the Age of the Internet: Identity "Demarginalization" Through Virtual Group Participation. McKenna & Bargh. Reading 24. Stability, Bistability, and Instability in Small Group Influence Patterns. Arrow. Reading 25. Socialization in Organizations and Work Groups. Moreland & Levine. Reading 26. Beyond Task and Maintenance: Defining External Functions in Groups. Ancona & Caldwell

Interpretation and Method : Empirical Research Methods and the Interpretive Turn

Abstract: This book demonstrates the relevance, rigor, and creativity of interpretive research methodologies for the social and human sciences. The book situates methods questions within the context of broader methodological questions--specifically, the character of social realities and their "know-ability." Exceptionally clear and well-written chapters provide engaging discussions of the methods of accessing, generating, and analyzing social science data, using methods ranging from reflexive historical analysis to critical ethnography. Reflecting on their own research experiences, the contributors offer an inside, applied perspective on how research topics, evidence, and methods intertwine to produce knowledge in the social sciences.